SHAMLAJI AROGYA SEVA TRUST Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition under Article 226 of the Constitution arises from refusal of the State Government to grant affiliation to the Homoeopathic College of the petitioner. The Education and the Health & Family Welfare Departments of the State Government are the respondents Nos.1 and 2 respectively (hereinafter referred as 'the respondent' for short), while the Chairman heading the Centralised Admission Committee is the respondent No.3 and the Central Council of Homoeopathy is subsequently joined as the respondent No.4.

(2.) The petitioner, a registered public trust since 1993, is running a Homoeopathic College at Godhra and proposes to open a new college at Vadodara as India's first and only women's Homoeopathic Medical College. It claims to have made initial appointments and investments for opening the new college. The M.S.University at Vadodara not having the faculty of homoeopathy, the petitioner obtained its no-objection certificate and applied for affiliation to Bhavnagar University. The Academic Council of Bhavnagar University recommended to its Executive Council to accord new affiliation to the petitioner's college on self-sufficient basis for one year from June 2000 to teach syllabus of Ist year degree course of B.H.M.S. The Executive Council of the University, by its Resolution No.7 dated 9.4.2000, accepted the recommendation of the Academic Council to accord affiliation to the petitioner's college and further resolved to take a deposit of Rs.20 lakhs. Thus, the Registrar of the University, in accordance with the provisions of Section 35 (4) of the Bhavnagar University Act, 1978 (for short the 'University Act'), forwarded on 18.4.2000 the application and all the proceedings of the Academic Council and the Executive Council to the State Government for deciding upon the question of grant of affiliation. As the State Government did not take and convey its decision despite a number of letters and representations, the petitioner approached this Court by way of Special Civil Application No.9904 of 2000, after hearing of which this Court directed the State Government to take a decision on the application of the petitioner as forwarded by the University within a period of two weeks from the date of the receipt of the order dated 25.9.2000. A pertinent observation made by this Court in the said order reads as under:

(3.) Against the backdrop of facts as above, the petitioner has challenged the decision of the Government refusing affiliation as illegal, arbitrary and discriminatory and prayed for quashing the impugned decision with a writ of mandamus directing the Government to take all necessary steps for granting affiliation and allotting students for admission under the Centralised Admission System. By an amendment, it is further prayed to hold the provision of sub-section (4) of Section 35 of the Bhavnagar University Act, 1978 empowering the Government to grant or refuse the application for affiliation to be void and repugnant to the provisions of the Central Council Homoeopathy Act, 1983 and the Regulations made thereunder.